Device for tagging garments



Sepf- 26, 1961 M. P. FRIEDMAN DEVICE FOR TAGGING GARMENTS Filed Deo. 20, 1956 /NvEA/ToR:

Afro/wf United States This invention relates to a device for tagging groups of shirts or other lgarments quickly and easily.

In commercial laundering operations, groups of shirts and other garments must be marked or otherwise idenltiiied so that they may be rearranged according to ownership after they have been washed and ironed. In the past launderies have employed various techniques for distinguishing the garments of diierent customers, such as by Writing the owners name or part of his name upon the shirt collars or by attaching identifying tags yto the Shirts. Since indelible markings detract from the appearance of nished shirts and since such markings sometimes result in confusion during subsequent laundering operations, the latter method of identification is generally preferred. Also it has been found that tags are generally easier to read than collar markings after the shirts have been laundered and that therefore the number of workers needed for sorting laundered shirts is less for any given speed of laundry operation where the shirts are tagged rather than stamped.

' Despite the ease with which the ownership of tagged shirts or other garments maybe later ascertained, the indi- 'virtual tagging of the articles each time they are laundered arent mounted upon a bench or table, as will be described shortly.

As illustrated most clearly in FIG. 2, the horn 1-1 has a generally horizontal rear portion 13 and an upwardly inclined front portion 14. 'Ihe rear end of the horn is rigidly secured by bolts 15, or by any other suitable means, to the intermediate horizontal portion of stand 12. In the illustration given, the stand is in the form of an inverted U with lateral portions 16 extending outwardly from the ends of inclined side legs 17. The lateral portions may be apertured at 1S to receive screws or bolts for securing the garment tagging structure to a table top or other work surface. It will be noted that horn 1.1 is spaced above lthe plane of lateral portions 16 so that during a tagging operation shirts or other garments may be partially suspended from the horn.

In FIGS. 1, 3 and 4 it will be seen that front portion 1.4- is narrower than the rear portion of the horn and is provided with a pair of upstanding lateral anges 19 extending along opposite sides thereof. The flanges are forwardly tapered and ow smoothly into the top surface of the horn adjacent the forward end thereof.

A bridge or hood 20 extends over the front of rear portion 11 and has side walls 21 which, it desired, may be formed integrally with the opstanding lianges of the horn. The top wall 22 of the bridge angles upwardly is generally considered more time consuming and hence more expensive than the operation of stam-ping the` shirts with indelible letters which maybe readable even after several washings. Furthermore, additional expense and diiioulty is sometimes encountered where workers, in an eiort to speed tagging operations, neglect to tag one or more of the shirts or inadvertently fail to attach the tags at corresponding positions thereon.

Therefore one of the main objects of theA present inyenton is to provide a highly effective device `for quickly tagging a number of shirts or other garments arranged in groups. A further object is to provide a tagging device for separately tagging alll of the garments of a group as they are consecutively removed from the device. In this connection it is a specific object -to :provide means for facilitating separation of the uppermost tag from a stack of tags carried by the device so that only a single tag: is attached to each garment as the `same is withdrawn 'from the tagging structure. i l

' Other objects will appear fromrthe specification and drawings in which: i `FIGURE lV is a` perspective'viewshowing a tagging device embodying the present invention; FIG. 2. is a broken longitudinal section showing structural details of the device; FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view taken along line 3 3 of FIG 2; FIG 4 is a cross-sectional view similar to FIG. 3 but taken along line 4-4 of FIG. 2; FIG. 5 is a longitudinal sectional view of the tagging device showing a group of shirts mounted thereon; FIG. 6 is similar to FIG. 5 and further shows a stack of tags inserted through the button holes of the shirts; FIG. 7 illustrates the means by which the stack of tags is bowed; FIG. 8 is similar to FIGS. 5-7 ibut shows the removal of a tagged shirt from the tagging device; and FIG. 9 is a broken perspective 'View showing a garment with a tag completely attached thereto.

In the embodiment of my invention shown in the drawings, the numeral 10 generally designates a garment t-agging structure essentially comprising a horn 111 and a stand 12. Preferably the respective parts are formed of metal such as steel and the entire structure may be and rearwardly at a spaced distance above the horizontal sunface ofthe rear portion 13 so that tags may be placed on the horn from either side of the bridge. At the forward end of the bridge between the front and rear portion of` the horn is an upwardly extending tab 23; This tab serves as a garment stop for limiting the rearward movement of garments hooked upon the tagging structure.

Above the rear portion of the horn and' ,inv front of stand 12 is an'upwardly and forwardlyprojecting tag stop 24. If desired,the stop Z4 may be formed integrally with the 'horn by punching the tab-like stop from rear portion 13. As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, a U-shaped guard wire 25 hasits ends welded or otherwise secured to the horn adjacent the rearend thereof and has a transverse portion 26 which extends across the horizontal portion of the horn between stop 24 and bridge 20. Guide 25 is preferably formed from spring metal and has its transverse portion normally `spaced slightly above the snr-face of the horn.

Atthe extremeforward end of the horn isan up -wardly andA rearwardly curved hook or tooth 27. This hook 'restricts forward movement of tags or strips supported by the horn and cooperates with other parts of 'the horn to Yhow or bend the `portions of the tags between `bridge 20 and the hook. i i i in the operation of the device a group of shirts or other garments belonging to a single owner are arranged s-o that corresponding button holes are aligned with each other. This is accomplished either by Vfirst placing the shirts together with a button hole of each shirt in register with the corresponding button holes of the other shirts and then hooking the entire group upon the upwardly inclined horn, or by consecutively hooking each shirt of the group upon the horn. The suspended group of shirts is then pushed rearwardly so that the last slrfrt of the series (the liirst one placed upon the horn) engages stop 23, as illustrated in FIG. 5. While only four shirts, A, B, C and D, are shown in the drawings, it will be understood that each group may comprise a greater or a smaller number of adjacent shirts. As the group of shirts is pushed rearward-.ly towards the lgarment stop, the progressively increasing height of tapered side lianges 19 spreads the button holes apart so that a stack or" tag strips may be inserted therebetween.

The number of strips in the stack corresponds with the number of shirts supported by the horn so that if there are four shirts in the group to be tagged, then a stack of four strips A', B', C and D will be inserted through the aligned button holes and urged against rear stop 24 (FIG, 6).` Preferably the stack of strips is urged through the shirt opening from the front of bridge 20, but it will be understood that if desired the stack may be pushed forwardly through the large opening defined by the bridge and into the position shown in the drawings. Each strip of the stack is narrower than the distance between upstanding lianges `19 and is longer than the distance between rear tag stop 24 and hook 27. Hence even when the rear ends of the stacked tags or strips abut the stop 24, the forward end portions of tho-se tags would project over and beyond the front end of the horn.

Since the strips are supported by the tagging device in stacked relation, it is necessary to provide some means for maintaining the lower tags of the stack in proper position while the uppermost tag is being withdrawn. This is accomplished by irst bending or bowing the front portion of the stack and hooking the front ends of the strips under hook 27. The ilexibility of the paper material from which these strips are formed tends to straighten the strips and as a result urges the front end of each strip tightly against the hook (FIG. 7). The transverse portion yodi spring guard 25 presses downwardly on that porytion of the stack supported by the horizontal part of the horn and prevents the strips from arching or bowing behind bridge 20. Toy release the uppermost strip from hook 27 an operator simply urges the front portion of the upper strip rearwardly and then forwardly. At the same time the last shirt placed upon the horn, shirt A, is slid forwardly oi of the horn along the strip A. The forward movement of the shirt and uppermost strip tends to urge the remaining strips forwardly and into tight engagement with hook 27. This hook cannot interfere with the removal of a shin because the strip or tag removed with the shirt shields the upper edge of the button hole from hook or tooth 27.

After shirt A and strip A have been withdrawn from the horn, the remaining shirts are similarly removed, each being accompanied by one of the strips. As each tagged shirt is removed from the garment tagging structure, the operator may fold the tags and staple their ends together, as indicated in FIG. 9. The numbers on the tags for a particulargroup of shirts are identical so that after the shirts are laundered they may be easily identified and regrouped according to ownership.

While I have disclosed my invention in considerable detail for the purpose of illustrating one embodiment thereof, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that many of these details may be varied without departing from the spirit and the scope of the invention.

I claim:

l. A garment tagging structure comprising a stand adapted to be mounted upon a table surface, a horn mounted upon said stand and having an inclined portion extending upwardly and away from the stand, said inclined portion being at and tapered at the free end thereof, said inclined portion providing a pair of upstanding tapered side anges for directing tag strips of ilexible material therebetween and for spreading the button holes of garments suspended therefrom, stop means provided by said horn for limiting longitudinal movement of the tag strips carried thereby, and means provided by said horn intermediate said stop means and the free end of said inclined portion and spaced above the tagsupporting surface of said horn for limiting movement away from said end of garments suspended from said structure by said horn projecting through the button holes thereof while at the same time permitting longitudinal sliding movement of tag strips carried therebelow by said horn to the extent permitted b-y said stop means.

2. The structure of claim 1 in which said inclined portion is provided adjacent the free end thereof with a curved hook for restricting movement of tag strips away from said stop means.

3. A shirt tagging structure comprising, a stand, a horn having a rear portion mounted upon said stand and having a front inclined portion extending upwardly and away from said rear portion, said inclined portion being dat and ytapered at the ront end thereof and having a pair of upwardly extending and Iforwardly tapered side flanges, a tag stop provided by said rear portion for limiting rearward movement of elongated tag strips supported upon said horn, and means provided by said horn between the front and rear portions thereof and being spaced above the tag-supporting surface of said horn for limiting the rearward movement of shirts suspended from said structure by said horn projecting through the button holes thereof while at the same time permitting longitudinal sliding movement of tags therebelow to the extent permitted by said tag Stop.

4. The structure of claim 3 in which said inclined portion is provided at the front end thereof with a hook for restricting forward movement of tag strips supported by said horn, said hook cooperating with said garment stop for bowing tag strips extending therebetween.

5. The structure of claim 4 in which guide means extends above and across said rear portion for preventing said tag strips from bowing along the rear portion of said horn.

References Cited in the tile of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 532,820 Riddle a 2..- Ian. 22, 1895 1,289,607 Batchelder ..-i Dec. 31, 1918 2,282,750 Schueller May 12, 1942 2,287,287 Baltz June 23, 1942 2,324,176 Smith July 13, 1943 2,764,160 Alexander Sept. 25, 1956 

